Home grown recipes for Punjab poll campaign

Wives, mothers and sons of these political leaders are actively participating in electioneering this time to make up for time available to the candidates who find it impossible to extensively cover the constituencies for the mid-term general election. There’s another reason: Central leaders of major parties are too caught up in their internecine problems to tour Punjab.

The poll scene, however, has yet to brighten and electioneering still to get underway despite the filing of nomination papers having closed and some of the prominent contestants having been named several weeks ago.

A tour of Patiala, Sangrur andRopar (reserve) Parliamentary constituencies revealed that the entire royal family of the erstwhile princely state of Patiala, wife of former Punjab chief minister Surjit Singh Barnala, and wife and son of Akali Dal (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann are slogging it out. They are busy opening election offices, renewing social contacts, winning over opinion leaders and supervising the campaign in their assigned areas.

At Faridkot, sitting MP Sukhbir Singh Badal is being helped by his mother Surinder Kaur Badal, besides his Chief Minister father Parkash Singh Badal. In Patiala, the Congress nominee and scion of the royal family Amarinder Singh has allocated the nine Assembly segments among his wife Praneet Kaur (Patiala city), aged mother Mohinder Kaur (Lehra Gagga and Sunam), brother Malwinder Singh (Samana and Shaturana) and son Ravinder Singh Tikku (Ghanaur and Dakha) to supervise the campaign.

He himself would be concentrating on bigger and more important functions.

In Sangrur, Surjit Kaur,wife of Surjit Singh Barnala, has been actively engaged in opening election offices and activating Barnala’s supporters while the SAD candidate has made his appearance on the poll scene only of late. In fact, her easy accessibility in the constituency has reportedly been in order to nullify allegations made by the detractors of the former member of parliament, that Barnala’s presence was not felt at the grassroots.

Not to be left behind, Mann had his wife Geetinder Kaur Mann and son Iman Singh Mann at his side when he filed the nomination papers on Tuesday.

It is the latter two who would be holding the fort for Mann while he, as the party president, would also be touring other constituencies of Ropar, Bathinda and Ferozepore being contested by the SAD(A).